Wednesday, October 26, 2011

VEGAN DINER BOOK GIVEAWAY AND REVIEW!

OUR 1ST WINNER DID NOT CONTACT ME AFTER 1 WEEK, SO WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER, in2insight! I will contact you. Congratulations!

It's past due for me to do a review AND a book giveaway (see info at the bottom of this post) of my friend Julie Hasson's wonderful book, Vegan Diner, on this blog. If you haven't seen this book, or purchased it yet, you are in for a treat! Not only do we all have some diner favorites that we would love to be able to eat again as vegans, but it looks wonderful, with delectable color photos of many of the recipes, and stylishly retro diner scenes. The content is a perfect combination of familiar and original. There are old favorites like All-American Beer-Battered Onions, Ooey-Gooey Brownies, and Biscuits with Creamy Sage Gravy, and then innovations such as Spelt Chai Pancakes, Vampire Fries, and Philly Seitan Sliders, to name but a very few of the tantalyizing recipes in this book.

Recently we had a couple of really delicious and quick meals from Julie's book that I'd like to tell you about. I had a yen for "macaroni and cheese" the other day, and needed a quick meal at the same time. (Actually, I had just got home from work on the 6:30 ferry. DH usually has dinner waiting for me on Friday nights, but he's been teaching a photography course at the college in Courtenay for a few weeks, so we've both been coming home on the same ferry.) I had heard so much about Julie's Cheezy Mac that I decided to try it. It looked quick and easy-- and it was!

I was out of elbow macaroni, so I used medium shell pasta, and I think I'll use that from now on! The shells make little "cups" to hold more of the sauce, so each bite is sumptuous!

While the pasta boils, you make the sauce, which tastes much richer than it actually is. I cheated a bit and cooked the sauce in the microwave, which worked perfectly.

The recipe specifies just mixing the hot pasta and sauce together and serving immediately, which is perfectly fine, but I want a crunchy topping. So, I sprinkled the top with panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) and ran it under the broiler, watching carefully. So it looked like a baked macaroni and cheese:

It was creamy and rich-tasting-- a very satisfying meal!

Another night I made two recipes from Vegan Diner: the Smoky Soy Curls and the Dill and Garlic Potato Salad. They were both very easy to make and we could pretend that, despite the cold weather, we were having a scrumptious summer BBQ meal:

We served the two dishes together on a bed of lettuce with pickled beets and marinated artichokes-- fantastic!

I love Soy Curls anyway (you can read about them here), but this simple recipe takes them to a new level! DH devoured them and we both can't wait to try them in a big, messy sandwich! The potato salad was creamy and tangy,complementing the Smoky Soy Curls perfectly. (By the way, DH tends to prefer my cooking, but he's a great fan of Julie's cooking and NEVER looks dubious when I say I'm trying out one of her recipes. He certainly wasn't disappointed in these dishes.)

I haven't even gotten to the desserts yet-- there are so many recipes to choose from! If you'd like to win a copy of Vegan Diner, comment below on why you'd like to lay your hands on this book and DH will choose a winner on Thursday night (the 27th). I'm afraid that the publisher has stipulated that only Americans can join in the contest.

70 comments:

I love the idea of learning how to make the tasty vegan comfort foods that you mentioned are featured in the Vegan Diner cookbook. Especially in time to make the holidays even more tasty and fun for my family!

Hello there! well I would love to lay my hands on this book because it seems to make wonderful recipes however it wouldn't be for me. I like healthy and healthy typically is vegan but I am not. I actually would love to give it to my cousin who is a vegan and scrounges and makes do but doesn't own a book to reference.

I'd prob copy a recipe or 2 for holiday gatherings so he has something to eat as well :)

This sounds delicious. I am a newly wed that is the main cook in the house which means although my husband isn't vegetarian/vegan "yet" at home he eats that way! I think these recipes would hit home with him!

I would really like this book. I am on again off again with the healthy eating- hey I figure it is like quitting cigarettes, each time you try the closer you get to the goal- and I am ready right now to jump back on the bandwagon. I have high cholesterol and now my blood sugar is going up too; I'll be 49 in a few weeks, so this is my chance to do myself a solid before I hit 50. Please pick me!!

I've heard a lot of good things about this cookbook, but that picture of the mac and cheese is enough for me today! And I like fast mac and cheese -- it would be great for my 4 kids who are always hungry.

Being a relatively new vegan and soooo not a great cook, I need books with easy to follow recipes and easy to find ingredients (such as yours that you post and in your Soyfoods Cooking for a Positive Menopause...my first vegan cookbook!). I would love to add a new book which sounds like it has many comfort food favorites included to my meager collection! Thank you so much, Bryanna!

Ooh, I flipped through this at the library but only got to see it briefly because it had a hold on it. I want to get a hold of it for the macaroni and cheese recipe that The Noochy Noodle reviewed so favourably!

oh gosh, i've been coveting this book for some time now! there have been only rave reviews of it and all the recipes sound so amazing -- diner food veganized? sign me up. i personally can't wait to try out the homemade cheeses and those orange cinnamon rolls...

It would be so much fun to cook diner food this winter! I haven't even thought of many of these dishes in years, and it all come back looking at your pictures, only better, as I know there is only life in the food. I would be thrilled to own this book, and my friends and family to eat the food from it!

I've had my eye on "Vegan Diner" for a while, and I'm hoping it will bring me out of my sad sad cookbook slump, in which I complain frequently to my own DH that I don't own a single cookbook that I truly LOVE. I have high hopes for this one to be my cookbook soul mate!

I borrowed this book from the library and everything looks so delicious; the chocolate chip cookie recipe in this book results in some of the best I've ever had! I would love to have more time to spend with this book.

Droooooooool. Everything in there looks so good I feel like going into a food coma just thinking about eating all of it! I just ordered a bulk package of soy curls so I would love to learn more ways of using those. I'm also always looking for more super yummy vegan recipes to show off to my omni friends to prove we eat nothing like rabbits!

I would like to win this cookbook to convince my father that eating this way doesn't mean giving up his favorite foods, just tweaking them a little. I know his fibromyalgia and his diabetes would respond well to a vegan diet, but he still resists.

I am tempted by this book everytime I see it in the bookstore. I think these recipes will help sway a few reluctant family members and friends. Also what better time for comfort food than to enjoy during cooler weather and the holidays. Thanks for the contest, keeping fingers crossed.

I borrowed this book from my library and was really enjoying the recipes, but had to return it so others could enjoy it as well. What I saw of the book definitely made me want to own it - I didn't get to try any of the seitan recipes yet!!!

My brother lives a few blocks from the diner and teases me constantly about how yummy the food is...and he's not even vegan! I'd love to be able to make some superdelicious recipes just to show him! :)

I'd love to win a copy because I adore Julie Hasson, she is the absolute bee's knees. I had my first ever soy curl encounter at Native Bowl, and my first (only) time making soy curls at home was with one of Julie's recipes.

Every Friday night we cook food from a different country for our Shabbat guests. We go through the alphabet to choose the countries. When we reach "U," our favorite choice is "United States," and our favorite type of US food is "diner food." It's easy to find meat recipes for our meat eaters, but I'm vegan and so are some guests. I'd love to have this cookbook so i can share the results and tempt them to become vegan.

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